Any system that is deprived of its natural volatility, with government up (unintelligible) volatile, any system becomes very fragile. — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
I have respect for mother nature's methods of robustness (billions of years allow most of what is fragile to break); classical thought… — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
“My point taken further is that True and False (hence what we call “belief”) play a poor, secondary role in human decisions;… — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
The fragile wants tranquility, the antifragile grows from disorder, and the robust doesn't care too much. — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
An elephant is vastly more efficient, metabolically, than a mouse. It's the same for a megacity as opposed to a village. But… — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
The opposite of fragile is something that gains from disorder. — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
When you ask people, 'What's the opposite of fragile?,' they tend to say robust, resilient, adaptable, solid, strong. That's not it. The… — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
Wittgenstein's ruler: Unless you have confidence in the ruler's reliability, if you use a ruler to measure a table you may also be using… — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
In politics we face the choice between warmongering, nation-state loving, big-business agents on one hand; and risk-blind, top-down, epistemic arrogant big servants of large… — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
My nightmare scenario is that the government saves Citibank once again, as well as the other banks, and business resumes as usual. Then, the… — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
Using, as an excuse, others' failure of common sense is in itself a failure of common sense. — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
You know, children philosophize more than adults - and they are critical of adults. — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
“Suckers think that you cure greed with money, addiction with substances, expert problems with experts, banking with bankers, economics with economists, and debt crises… — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
“One needs to go out and buy a lottery ticket in order to win. Does it mean that the work involved in the trip… — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
Individuals should think about the worst-case scenarios and plan for them. The world will be crazier than you think it will be. Put money… — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
“If you are looking for your misplaced wallet in your living room, in a trial and error mode, you exercise rationality by not looking… — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
“Most humans manage to squander their free time, as free time makes them dysfunctional, lazy, and unmotivated—the busier they get, the more active they… — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
We learn the most from fools ... yet we pay them back with the worst ingratitude. — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
